Dead by Dusk

Summary

An archaeological dig in Naples unleashes an undead killer in this Alliance Vampires novel from the New York Times–bestselling author.

For Stephanie Cahill, a job in Naples is a chance to start over. The rustic oceanfront village of Bella Vista looks just like an Italian postcard and the perfect place to mend a broken heart—until young women start disappearing.

Archeologist Grant Peterson senses something odd about this dig, but he never imagined the mutilated body of a young woman would turn up at the site. From the moment the first victim is discovered, Stephanie feels as if she’s being watched, followed, studied—and hunted. The police believe a serial killer is on the loose, but the old-timers know the truth: The dig has disturbed an ancient vampire who has lain dormant for centuries.

The powerful attraction between Stephanie and Grant is a complication neither can afford as they race against time to keep Stephanie from joining the ranks of the missing. For nothing in Bella Vista is what it seems. No one can be trusted. And those closest to Stephanie may prove the most dangerous of all . . .

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Dead by Dusk - Heather Graham

Prologue

Legend

Raoul Masson, squire to Conan de Burgh, burst in upon his master where the great Norman warlord sat at his desk, writing letters to his king in Paris.

Startled, Conan de Burgh looked up.

Raoul was in a rare state of anxiety.

They’re coming. The villagers, the people, from miles around. Knights who have long since surrendered have taken up their swords and shields again.

This area of fierce Calabrian tribesmen had certainly produced its share of excellent fighting men, and yet, it was difficult at first to understand Raoul’s agitation. Fighting to subdue the populace had often been brutal and cost many lives, but the battles were long done. The townspeople were little able to make war now against the power of the Comte de Burgh’s well horsed, trained, and steel-armed knights. Though de Burgh had reached his position of power through heated battle and tournament, time and time again, he was a man who had come to greatly love peace and the riches of posterity. He was known for the mercy he showed those who were conquered and brought under the Norman yoke. Though his men could easily smash a small rebellion of peasants bearing scythes and hoes, he did not want the slaughter it would cause. Even if a great number of trained soldiers had arisen again, they had been bested before and could be brought down again.

He was puzzled. The chain of command had been running smoothly. In the last year, he had proven to the people that they could live well beneath his rule. To many peasants it mattered little where the man had come from who called himself lord, just that he refrained from slicing their necks, raping their wives, and stealing their entire produce.

Conan frowned, rising, reaching for the heavy battle sword that never left his side.

What is their grief? he asked Raoul.

Raoul, a strapping young man, looked ill. "The slaughter, my lord. Sweet Jesu! The slaughter. I saw . . . I saw myself. They were strewn . . . in pieces . . . across the field. They say that it was the Lady Valeria, so they were told, and there have been the whispers . . . you must see yourself, you must see! The people . . . they are not rising against you. They are demanding that you act. You have refused to see the evil in Valeria and François, my lord, but now the people are rising against you. François intends conquest even here, and she is with him."

Conan felt ill. His heart sank.

Valeria.

He had come here, the great conqueror, proven, confident, and self-assured, but then found himself at a loss, shaken by his deep desire for the incredible daughter of the Italian magnate Paolo Ratini. Quick to see the power of the great waves of Normans, Paolo had astutely joined forces with the conquerors.

The first time Conan had ridden to the Palacio Ratini, Valeria had stood out upon the balcony, and he had seen her, ebony hair bared to the sun, eyes huge and deep blue, face sculpted like the finest porcelain. She had smiled, evidently fascinated by the sight of him—or his great party.

He hadn’t known or cared.

The great passion of his life had been born. She was well bred, naturally, the daughter of such a man as Paolo. He had intended marriage from the moment he saw her, and it would have been right, natural, just like the nearly excruciating hunger that had grown between them. A vital man of tremendous strength, bred himself to conquest, power, courage, and the endless battle such a life required, he’d known innumerable women throughout his life, from the basest whores to the most refined nobility, and yet, he had never known anyone like Valeria. She had been widowed during one of the first battles between native lords and encroaching Normans, and was experienced, fully mature and beautiful in her form, the mother of a young daughter. Intimacy with her was as raw as the rugged cliffs and verdant earth of Calabria. It was something more as well, almost ethereal, a touch of heaven, thoughts that a man such as himself shared with no one, including the woman who so enthralled him. He had planned on marriage, a life of such never-ending fever and bliss.

But destiny had other plans for the lady in the form of François de Venue, an illegitimate cousin of the king in Paris. Thus far, Conan’s great strength, and his natural ability to lead and draw others to him with absolute loyalty, had preserved his presence here, and he assumed that François would not dare to challenge him. But the bastard royal, François, had arrived upon the scene with a brutal and unnecessary violence. Those areas still in minor rebellion fell beneath his onslaught. Men who still might have ridden proudly beneath a Norman banner had been slaughtered. Somehow, François and his men had triumphed over larger forces, leaving battlefields with few of their own lost, while the enemy lay decimated.

The first conquest François had made upon his arrival had been that of Valeria, as well as her father’s holdings. Conan was stunned by the betrayal. Had Paolo turned his daughter over to François in pursuit of what he perceived as a greater power? Or had the man been threatened to such an extent that he’d felt he’d had no choice? The one tryst Conan had managed with Valeria after the arrival of his French counterpart had been deeply wrenching; he had been willing to fight any man for Valeria, including his own king. But while the beauty clung to him, in tears, holding tight as if she might forever memorize their time together, she denied him. She didn’t want him to fight for her. He would never understand, but she was betrothed to François because she had to be, and any effort Conan made on her behalf would cause her nothing but harm. And so he had stepped aside. He had kept his fury leashed, watching François ravage the countryside, killing again and again. He had been stunned to hear that Valeria had often appeared on the battlefield at the side of her betrothed, and it was rumored that it was she who brought about such death and destruction. He had never thought, however, that an entire populace could believe the woman capable of such horror. And yet . . .

He heard again and again that indeed, it was she, Valeria, who brought about the anguish and bloodshed. The people had spoken of her as if she were a witch, a monster, the devil’s own bride cloaked in beauty. As of late, he had even begun to fear for her.

My lord, they will be upon us any minute, Raoul reminded him, urgency growing in his voice.

Conan strode for the door in the office of the magnificent fortress, built right into one of the cliffs and almost impregnable. A fine hallway with Roman marble columns brought him to the sweeping stairway; he descended to the great hall, where his knights were assembling. Well trained and attuned to his every move, men rushed forward with his armor, buckling chain and plate into place and proper position. Hagar, his massive black war stallion, was brought to the entry, and he strode at the head of his men, readying to meet the hordes.

And they were coming. Just as Raoul had said. It was night, but then, he had heard that much slaughter had taken place at night, and de Venue and his company had often fallen upon the innocent during the very late hours, before the dawn. They rode with monsters, he had been told, great dogs that tore into the flesh of men and babes alike.

Now, torches burning in a sea so great it might have been day, the people were coming. Some were soldiers, some peasants, others were women and children.

Conan mounted Hagar at the head of his men; he motioned that the gate down the slope be opened, and he rode out from the walls with his most trusted knights at his side, his men-at-arms following in rank. Before the great field at the foot of the cliff, his fellows flanked him in a line; then he rode forward alone.

Halt! Tell me, what is it that you seek from me? he bellowed loudly to the crowd, his voice deep and rich with the confidence and authority he never failed to wield.

A fellow burst forth from the crowd, a man he knew: a fine Calabrian warrior who had lain down his arms and accepted a truce. He was Giovanni da Silva, young and intelligent, a man of God and of faith, and yet tonight, his eyes were as wild as those of a madman.

Lord Conan! he called. We have accepted your rule—the peasants beneath you saw a kinder man than they had served before. But tonight, if you do not lead us against the devil horde of François de Venue, we will die to a man—indeed, the women and children among us as well!—if you do not take arms against the unholy butchery of your countrymen. Against him, the witch who commands the wind and fog, and the demon dogs that come before them. Lord Conan, you alone have the power to fight such unearthly demons, and you alone, blessed sire, must rid us of the monster queen who would slay us all.

Good fellows, knights and peasants among you, surely you cannot believe that the woman is such a monster! he called back.

Make way! da Silva called, and a woman, young and slender, work-worn at a tender age, burst through with the bloody, battered body of a young lad in her arms.

She did this! the woman cried brokenly to him. I saw her. Saw her stand upon the hill, and the demon dogs rushed around her, and laid claim to our village. I saw her! Saw her lift her hand, saw the light of hell in her eyes. If you do not stop her, slay her, she will tear down everything. By gracious God, dear Lord Conan! She fell to the earth, her tears mingling with the blood of her son. You must help us!

From the southeast, a bloodcurdling howl suddenly encompassed the night. The earth itself seemed to tremble. Conan was not a man who feared battle, pain, or even death. Yet at the sound of that howling, he felt as if his blood grew cold and congealed in his veins. Fear trickled in icy rivulets along his spine. Angrily, he ignored it, ignored the unholy unease that seemed to filter into his very being.

Wolves. Wolves crying to the moon by night, nothing more. Or wild dogs, perhaps, their one-time owners dead and decaying upon shorn fields where battle had taken place, now left to starve and rampage and ravage on their own.

Wolves, or wild dogs, he said aloud.

No! You don’t understand, you’ve yet to see . . . you won’t believe. You must come, now. You must lead us. They attack yet another village! da Silva told him. Lord Conan! For the love of God!

He nodded. Best that he lead the forces against François and Valeria, who was surely forced to ride at his side, who must now have witnessed such horror that she stared upon it, her eyes glazed with dismay. If he were to conquer François, he would make himself an enemy of his own king. And yet he had earned his place here; the king would have to make war on him, and he doubted that, far away in Paris, the king could afford the men and arms he would need to roust Conan from his powerful hold. That mattered little. Seeing the horde before him, the tears, the blood, the strange majesty of the thousands of torches burning in the night, he knew there was no choice.

Aye, then, we ride against François, he said.

Wait!

From the crowd, a cleric rushed forward. It was customary to pray before entering upon the field of battle and death. Yet this fire-eyed priest would demand that he dismount and kneel, were he not to do so of his own volition, and so he did. The priest burst into a spate of Latin so rushed that Conan could not follow, though he, like others of his status, was taught the language as a child. And when the words were done, the priest stepped forward, placing a huge silver cross around his neck. Even as he mounted, he felt himself doused with drops of holy water as the priest intoned more words he could not discern.

Mounted again, he lifted his hands, and his knights and men fell in beside him, the hordes of people behind them, Normans and natives of the Italian peninsula as well.

They rode.

The moon high above them, a strange, cold wind whipping at their mantles.

They approached Trincia, the village under attack. As they rode, the wind whipped higher, for there was a fog upon the ground, and the wind did not disperse it. They could hear screams and cries, and the unearthly howling of dogs. Riding into the mire at last, they saw the troops of François de Venue emerging through the fog, making a line before them.

François led.

Valeria was at his side.

Dark hair billowing down her shoulders, violet eyes dazed, and yet he thought that the strange glow came from tears. He had loved her so.

Get from here, Conan! François shouted angrily. I have let you live—go, and be grateful.

Eventually, you will come for me, Conan said. But that matters not. You’ve become a warrior against life itself, against God and man, and I will stop you!

The dark, handsome face of François de Venue darkened into a scowl of fury. Then he smiled. Never, he said. Tonight, Conan, is as good as any night for you to die!

Remember the child! François said sharply to Valeria. And he leaned toward her, whispering.

The wind began to whip anew in an eerie, dark swirl of fog and night. The baying began.

And the demon dogs came rushing through the throngs of horsemen that flanked François and his troops. And Valeria.

Conan drew his sword. For God and man! he roared.

The first animal leapt upon him and Hagar. The great war horse staggered. The animal was a dog, and not a dog. It was huge in size, but not a wolf. Its teeth were more those of a great cat, a tiger in the night, than those of a canine. Its shoulder muscles were huge, and its massive paws held cat claws. The sight of the beast, bringing down both Hagar and himself, was so startling that Conan almost missed his instinctive reaction. But he brought his sword forth in powerful fury, and severed the animal’s head from its shoulders before its teeth could tear into flesh.

All around him, he heard the screams of his men as they met the beasts. Slashed, cut, and stabbed, they rose again to attack men and horses. Unseated, Conan fought in a desperate fever himself, fighting in front and behind, striking fur and flesh and bone, only to have the creatures rise again. With a great blow, he severed the head of another creature and realized that death came to the demon dogs only then.

The heads! Sever the heads! he roared to his men.

And slowly, slowly, with screams of death and despair rising around him all the while, the demon dogs were brought low, and then they were left to battle the men who fell in line behind them.

Despite the wind, the dark swirl of eerie fog, the forces of Conan de Burgh began to push back the enemy.

François himself was upon him then, in a rage of energy, his sword swinging with such fever and strength that Conan was incredulous, battling desperately for his life. He had never encountered such power in a man. His men, engaged around him, could do nothing, and he feared that his great efforts would fail, for should he fall, his men would retreat, and the forces of his enemy would follow, and all would be slaughtered in this bloodbath.

He deflected a mighty blow from François, who was in such a berserk wrath that foam gushed through his thin lips. Down upon the ground, he feared the brutal weight and strength of his enemy would finish him at last. Yet as François lifted his arm to deliver the coup de grâce, Conan managed to lift his sword, and the tip of his weapon struck straight into the base of the man’s throat, where no helmet or mail protected him. He caught hold of a vein, and the man wavered. Calling upon his last resources, Conan forced the sword deeper, finding his feet against the weight of his own chain and mail, and with a maddened pressure delivered by God or desperation, he pressed the sword with an ever greater fervor. Like the demon dogs, he knew somehow that François would perish if his head were severed.

And so it was. His enemy fell to his knees, gurgling through the blood that spurted from his throat. Conan strained harder, and François was forced down on his back, and still his eyes were alive with fury and hatred, and some strange glint of knowing.

Valeria! Valeria! Valeria!

The chant had gone up from those around them, as great as the field of torches and lights that had filled the field of battle.

They have her! Conan heard, and saw that Raoul had never faltered, had fought at his side all along, while others had rushed forward.

François de Venue remained on the ground, fingers around his throat, choking on his blood.

His head. Sever his head! Conan commanded. He was already moving. He had to reach Valeria. They meant to kill her.

They had fought at the village in the valley at the base of great cliffs. And as he looked up now, he saw that the men had taken Valeria, that she was laden down with silver chains, and a large silver cross swung between the valley of her breasts. Giovanni da Silva had her high up on the tor of a cliff. She was being forced to her knees. Da Silva was ready to deliver an executioner’s blow upon her neck.

No! Conan roared the word, casting off his helmet as he raced the distance to the cliffs, threw himself upon the rock, and began to climb.

By God, she must die! da Silva called back.

By some insane mercy, Conan reached the cliff and the outcrop of rock where Valeria had been taken. The little plateau might have been a strange, sacrificial altar, the way it protruded high above the ground and jutted out over the battlefield.

Da Silva drew his sword high, and Conan crawled atop the rock and found his footing just in time. He grasped the man’s arm, with Valeria at his knees, and there they locked in a magnificent struggle.

Conan glanced down. And he saw her eyes.

And for a second, he was frozen in the midst of his very struggle.

Conan de Burgh! came a roar, and he was distracted to the edge of the tor, where he saw that François de Venue, incredibly, had crawled as well, his life’s blood still streaming down his throat. By all rights of nature, the man should have been dead!

Da Silva screamed out, crying to God, and to the heavens, and to all that was holy.

A great sound suddenly filled the night, a rumbling of the earth, a schism in time and place and being, in the very world.

A cracking . . . fracturing . . .

And suddenly, the tor upon which they stood began to shake, and all were thrown to the earth. The rumbling continued until . . .

Strewn upon the ground, helpless against the explosion of the earth, Conan heard a whisper. My love . . . !

She crawled to him, violet eyes huge. Stunned, he felt the shattering of ground.

And one more thing.

Her tears upon his face.

Her lips . . . against his flesh.

The earth, the rock, the very ground upon which they stood began to break and crumble. It seemed that there was another howl in the night—the horrible, dying shriek of a demon dog.

And then the earth exploded, and the cliffs themselves tore apart and fell . . .

François, covered in blood and still at the edge of the precipice, toppled first. Down . . . down to the earth below them. Then the rock shattered like glass, and all who had stood upon it came crashing down to earth.

People, shrubs, creatures, rocks, and trees . . . all crumbled and fell. And as dust and earth and bits and pieces of rock came tumbling after, the dawn came.

Streaked with gold, yet heavily laden with the crimson of spilled blood.

And beneath great piles, tons of rock, lay the bodies of those who had struggled.

The godly and determined Giovanni da Silva.

The beautiful Valeria.

And the great and powerful Conan de Burgh.

His men wept openly.

Had he only let da Silva behead the witch Valeria, as was right, he would have survived to enjoy the bounty of goodness and life left to those he had led.

But now . . .

Alas. He had loved the evil beauty far too deeply.

Yet she was his again.

For beneath the rock, they were entombed together forever.

Or, at the very least, centuries to come.

Chapter 1

Exhausted and exasperated, Stephanie Cahill stared at him blankly. I’m sorry. Could you explain all this to me one more time, please? It had been a ridiculously long day. The last thing that had gone right had been her flight from Chicago to Rome. Then, there had been a glitch in the flight from Rome to Naples. When she’d arrived in Naples, the car that was to pick her up and bring her to the southeast part of the country had failed to show up. Her international phone had failed to work. It had seemed that all the Italian she knew—and that was not at all what it should have been when she had agreed to accept this job—flew out of her head. When she tried to ask for help at the airport, words in other foreign languages would pop into her head. At last, she had gotten through to Bella Vista and Reggia Café, and discovered that her driver had arrived to get her at the airport, but hadn’t found her, and after a few espressos at a coffee bar in Naples, had shrugged and headed on back.

He would return. She was grateful, of course, but after her frustrating efforts to get through, she was weary and then had another two hours to sit around waiting.

She tried walking. After all, walking around would be good. She felt like a pretzel. The airlines might have added more room to economy, but it hadn’t been enough. She was five-nine, and had to wonder how those over six feet actually survived the trans-Atlantic flights without their limbs becoming permanently entwined.

Had she waited a day, she might have been able to upgrade to first class on her airlines bonus miles.

But she hadn’t waited a day, because she had been scheduled to meet with the entire cast of her show here, at the club, this night, at seven p.m.

Now she was discovering that her entire cast had somehow managed to vanish for the evening. Doug Wharton and Drew Cunningham had been delayed by a car breakdown over in Sorrento, Lena Miro and Suzette Croix had gone on a tour to the local ruins, where a rock slide on the return road had caused the guide to call in with the information that they’d be camping out for the evening, and Clay Barton had yet to check in. Gema Harris was around somewhere, according to Arturo, but since the others were AWOL, she’d decided to take the night off, too.

Fair enough, Stephanie thought. But she was still frustrated, sore, worn, and ready to kick herself for being such a stickler for punctuality that she hadn’t taken the later flight, and arrived in a far more optimistic mood.

At the moment, she wanted to strangle Reggie—the woman responsible for her being here. The entire project was so off the wall, Stephanie doubted she should have accepted the task, even if she did adore Reggie. After all, was Reggie here? No, of course not; she was off pushing this latest project to military personnel in Germany somewhere, assuming that when she returned, all would be in perfect order. But that was Reggie, or Ms. Victoria Reggia, who had been like a windstorm many times in Stephanie’s life, blowing in and out, and turning the world upside down like a modern-day Auntie Mame. She was actually Stephanie’s mom’s cousin, and since she was always traveling the world somewhere, Stephanie had rarely seen her until her parents’ funeral. Then, Reggie had been a godsend.

But then again, she had to admit, despite this shaky start, Reggie’s offer regarding this job had been something of a godsend, as well. At twenty-seven, Stephanie could be proud of both her talent and her business acumen. An automobile accident had left her orphaned at seventeen, and she had still managed to live on her own and acquire her master’s degree in fine arts, with a minor in business. She had gone from acting with the Park Street Players in Chicago to managing the small but esteemed comedy club. Yet for all her education and life-enforced maturity, she hadn’t foreseen her relationship with Grant Peterson, the club’s owner. Grant had been an even greater power in her life—electric, vital; from the moment she had first seen him, she had felt compelled to come closer to him. Admittedly, she mocked herself—she had been compelled just to touch him. She had never wanted anyone as she had wanted Grant, and she had known that the minute she had walked into his playhouse and watched him speaking from center stage. She had met him, and in his eyes, she had seen an equal fascination. Sometimes, she wondered why. He had traveled the world with touring groups; he was far more knowledgeable and sophisticated. And yet, it had seemed that he was in love with her.

For a year it had been a passionate if volatile relationship, but her life had seemed set. He was assertive, fair, determined, but never cruel. He didn’t patronize his cast or crews, but there was no question that he was in complete control. Theater and improv were his passions, but he loved jazz and the opera, and more than anything else, museums and art and ancient civilizations. His major, oddly enough, hadn’t been fine arts, but history. He played a mean guitar, and enjoyed street fairs, budding artists, as well as collecting armor and movie paraphernalia.

Stephanie’s life had been nearly perfect.

Her work was her life’s dream and Grant was her heart’s desire.

Then it had ended. Maybe it had been as much her fault as his. But it had been difficult to ignore his sudden state of distraction, though he had claimed he hadn’t understood quite what was plaguing him himself. He’d been up at all hours of the night; he’d gone out at all hours of the night. They were both accustomed to working with ensembles, so she had first scoffed at the idea that she was suspicious or jealous. But then she had thought about Grant. He had everything he needed to succeed—in business, and in his personal life. He was six feet, two inches of lithe muscle and mobility, since his intrigue with the theater had taken him into any number of pastimes including fencing, kick-boxing, riding, and some stunt work. He also possessed more than a fair amount of charm and sensuality, which had been wonderful for the success of his business, and horrible on a personal level, once Stephanie had decided that there was something seriously wrong.

Then the dreams had started, or the nightmares, and they had been very strange. Sometimes he had tossed and turned. And sometimes, he had come to her with a volatile urgency that had been both exhilarating and terrifying, the latter because she wasn’t sure when she came down whether he was actually awake during it all.

Then...

From the depths of sleep one night, he had cried out another woman’s name.

Despite the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous and incredible in bed, the last had been a slap that went into her soul. She felt that she wasn’t what she wanted to be in his life, and never would be. They had argued bitterly because she couldn’t tell him why she was leaving—he would have claimed that she had been mistaken, or worse, that the name didn’t mean anything to him. Their last argument had been volatile.

But she had still worked for him.

To say it was a strained relationship was sadly understating the current of hostility that seemed to evolve around them. Worse. Anger could be volatile, and far too quickly turn into something else.

Still, not being independently wealthy, she had needed work. So, in a burst of spontaneity, Stephanie had jumped at Reggie’s offer without really thinking it through. Ironically, immediately after her resignation, she heard from a mutual friend that Grant would be gone for some months as well, doing some kind of work somewhere else. If she’d stayed on, she could have managed the company in his absence.

Too late. She’d agreed to come here, and here she was.

Arturo, the club’s general manager and ever the optimist, didn’t even sigh as he began to explain the whereabouts of Stephanie’s missing troop members once again. You must understand where you are, and what is going on here, of course. The ladies, they meant to cause no trouble—they simply wanted to see the ruins. Everyone wants to see the ruins! The archeologists bring new things to light on an almost hourly basis! Ah, but then there was the rock slide, so the ladies were stuck. The gentlemen—the two of them, anyway—have had car trouble. Mr. Barton is lost in transit somewhere, which you must surely understand yourself. And so, the lovely Miss Gema thought that she would spend the evening at leisure, so she could come to you fresh and ready to work hard tomorrow! His smile faded and he frowned suddenly. My English is well spoken, isn’t it?

Stephanie waved a hand in the air, smiling, and ruing her own impatience. "I’m so sorry, Arturo. Your English is excellent. Better than

Reviews

Drake is one of my fave paranorm authors but this book was so-so. americans in a Bella Vista village to put on a comedy at a new inn. close to an archeo. dig of a great battle of good-evil. former lovers, vamps, sorceresses, deaths & dreams of past-lives